Don't Wish...

"Be alert and guard your heart from greed and from always wishing for what you don't have. For your life can never be measured by the amount of things you possess." Luke 12:15

This devotion comes at the most perfect time - Postseason Basketball. I have a love/hate relationship with March. This is a time filled with great excitement and opportunities, but it can also lead to significant disappointment. There are two key moments in every sports season when everyone—players, coaches, and officials—find themselves saying, “I wish…” These moments occur before the season begins and during the postseason.

Wishing is dangerous.

The simple, innocuous phrase “I wish” has led more than a few people into trouble. In Genesis, Lot’s wife said “I wish I didn’t have to leave my home.” So she turned around to look at the place she had called home, Sodom, a place so wicked God destroyed it, and she turned into a pillar of salt. Genesis 19:26

David, the King of Israel and a man after God’s heart, was lounging on the roof of his home and saw a beautiful woman taking a bath and said “I wish I could have her.” So, because he was a king, he pulled her. The problem was that she was already someone else’s woman. That one wish led to her getting pregnant (2 Samuel 11:5), David sending her husband to be killed (2 Samuel 11:15), and a sickly baby who would not survive (2 Samuel 12:15-19).

Judas will forever be known as the man who betrayed Jesus. How does a disciple, one of Jesus’s twelve closest followers, end up selling out his mentor? A simple wish. Judas said “I wish I had money.” This wish led him to skim money off the top of the money bag he was in charge of (John 12:6) and eventually exchanging the freedom of his mentor for the equivalent of about $500 (Matthew 26:15).

In Luke 12:15 Jesus tells us not to wish for what we don’t have. From these examples, we can see the wisdom in this verse. Wishing for what you do not have can open you up to fall into a trap laid by the enemy. We already learned in “Not Today Satan” that the enemy does not tempt you with things you do not want. You would never fall for that! Instead, he listens for the things you say you wish for.

So, don’t wish.

Wish: “to feel or express a strong desire or hope for something that is not easily attainable; want something that cannot or probably will not happen.” - Oxford Languages

So, to wish is to have a strong desire for something out of reach. This looks a lot like the definition of covet.

Covet: to “yearn to possess or have (something). - Oxford Languages

Jesus, in Luke 12:15, is telling us that wishing for what we don’t have is actually a sin from one of the 10 commandments!

Do not desire to possess [covet] anything that belongs to another person—not a house, a wife, a husband, a slave, an ox, a donkey, or anything else. Exodus 20:17

My dad has a saying, “What do people want? That which they see everyday.” This is why in officiating (and in life), comparing what we have with what others have (schedules, contracts, assignments, and postseason opportunities) is so dangerous. It causes well-meaning people to wish for what they do not have, leaving an opening for the enemy. The enemy will use our desires to steal the good fruit from us. He will steal hope, joy, patience, kindness, humility, all of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. He does not just take, however, he actually gives too. In place of the good fruit he stole, he gives us his fruit (the fruit of the flesh Galatians 5:19-21), hopelessness, bitterness, jealousy, pride, irritation, and selfishness. This is why I believe Jesus was so adamant about wishing for stuff.

To be clear, I do not place goals and aspirations in the same category as wishes. Goals and aspirations come with work. I believe it’s the focus that makes the difference between the two. Wishing for things places the focus on the thing whereas goals focus on the process. Focusing solely on what is in our control, the time and effort we put in, will not cause the fruits of the flesh to rise in us. Our focus is on who we become as a result of the process. On the other hand, focusing on what we acquire (things, status, relationships) causes us to focus on what is not in our control, leading to those fruits of the flesh.

It is so easy to fall into the trap of wishing. I have done it. It is a slippery slope that once you step in it, it will have you down a rabbit hole before you know it. Falling in that trap of wishing led me to be upset, bitter, and lose hope over things that are completely out of my control, and I have no answer or recourse for. It is a total waste of energy! Unfortunately, it is also human nature to compare ourselves with those around us. Which is why it is an easy trap to fall into. We just have to know if we are winning or losing.

Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind. Ecclesiastes 4:4

This is why I constantly have to remind myself, we do not control whether people (or one specific person) like us or not, nor the professional opportunities afforded to us (jobs/assignments/leagues). The only thing we are in full control of is how we show up (effort & attitude). And, it is more important who I become than what I acquire.

A good friend of mine once told me, “never see yourself as a failure in the eyes of someone else’s success.”

So, stop wasting energy wishing.